These Sesame Chicken Bowls are the easy answer to your weeknight Chinese food cravings. In less than half an hour, you can have your own, customizable dish that’s so much better than takeout.
They’re a breeze to make, and are a great meal prep option to prepare in bulk. You’ll just love these leftovers for lunch.
We love stir fry dinners, just a bit of chopping and you’re ready for a meal that cooks up in minutes.
From our Mongolian Beef to Thai Basil Chicken and Hunan Shrimp, we’re always firing up the wok. We’ve even made Sweet and Sour Meatballs!
This sesame chicken recipe is another one of our favorites. It’s savory, sweet, nutty, and oh so delicious.
Why this Recipe Works
- Perfect Balance of Flavors: The sauce, with its combination of sweet honey, savory soy sauce, aromatic garlic and ginger, and a touch of rice vinegar, creates a harmonious balance of flavors that is classic in many Asian cuisines.
- Easy to Make: The recipe is straightforward and doesn’t require any overly complex cooking techniques, making it accessible for cooks of all levels.
- Quick Cooking Time: This dish comes together quickly, with the chicken cooking in just 5-6 minutes and the entire meal ready in under 20 minutes. Great dinner idea for any night!
- Visually Appealing: The final dish, with its vibrant colors and garnish of scallions and sesame seeds, is not only delicious but also visually appealing, making it a great dish to serve to guests.
What is Sesame Chicken?
If you’ve ever been to an American-Chinese restaurant (and who hasn’t?), you’ve surely seen sesame chicken on the menu.
The dish consists of bite sized pieces of chicken that are coated in egg and cornstarch, deep fried, then tossed in a sticky and sweet sesame sauce.
For our version, we’re going a bit healthier without skimping on any of the flavor. Instead of deep frying, we’re going to shallow fry the chicken.
We’re also adding in some veggie power to round out the meal.
Ingredients
- Chicken – boneless + skinless. We are going with thighs, they cook up so tender and flavorful. Feel free to substitute with breast if you prefer.
- For frying – egg, corn starch, oil, soy sauce.
- Sauce – honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, corn starch, sesame seeds.
- Veggies – we are using snow peas, but see below for other options.
- Garnishings – scallions and more sesame seeds.
How to Make Sesame Chicken Bowls
Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, then toss with the corn starch and egg.
Add oil to a wok and get it nice and hot. Add chicken and 2 tsp soy sauce, and cook 5-6 minutes, till the chicken starts to brown up.
Pour in sauce, toss with chicken, and cook till it starts to thicken up, anout 3-4 minutes.
Mix in snow peas and cook for another minute or two.
How to Serve Sesame Chicken
We love it in a bowl over hot white rice, garnished with scallions and more sesame seeds.
Other options:
- Brown rice
- Asian noodles (chow mein, hakka, etc.)
- Cauliflower rice
- Zoodles
What Other Veggies Can Go In This Sesame Chicken Recipe?
Any of your favorite stir fry veggies can go in this dish. That being said, some would want to go in earlier, at the the same time as the sauce, to cook a little more.
Veggies to add earlier, with the sauce: broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, onion, green beans
Veggies to add in the last minute: snow peas, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green onions
We recently made it with broccoli, and it turned out great!
Other Variations
- For a lighter version of the dish, do not fry the chicken. Cut it into very thin (about 1/8-1/4 inch thick) strips and stir fry in a little oil before adding to the sauce.
- Give it a little kick! Add 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite red chili sauce (sriracha, sambal oelek, gochujong, etc).
- Add some cashews for additional flavor and texture.
- For a saucier version, add 1/4 cup water to the sauce mixture.
Leftovers and Meal Prep
Leftover sesame chicken is great refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days. We like to store it in individual portion sized containers, along with the rice. Simply reheat in the microwave with an extra splash of water for a quick meal prep lunch.
You can also freeze leftovers for 1-2 months. For best results, freeze in a freezer bag, with as much air squeezed out as possible to prevent freezer burn.
Whip up these easy sesame chicken bowls in your kitchen some hectic weeknight, they’ll be on the table before you know it.
And while you’re at it, make a big batch. You’re going to love meal prepping with this recipe.
Sesame Chicken Bowl, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!
Check out these other great stir fry dishes!
Kung Pao Chicken
Mongolian Ground Beef
Easy Pork Stir Fry
Beijing Beef
Thai Basil Fried Rice
Chicken Ramen Stir Fry
Sesame Chicken Bowls
These Sesame Chicken Bowls are the answer to your weeknight Chinese food cravings. In 25 minutes, you can cook a better-than-takeout meal.
Ingredients
Stir Fry
- 1lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1 egg, whisked
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 6oz snow peas
Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
For serving
- cooked white rice
- scallions
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix chicken egg and corn starch.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Once hot, add chicken and 2 tsp soy sauce. Cook 5-6 minutes, turning occasionally, until it begins to brown.
- Mix together sauce ingredients, then pour over chicken. Cook 3-4 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Add snow peas and cook 1-2 minutes.
- Serve over warm rice and garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 533Total Fat 29gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 23gCholesterol 185mgSodium 1264mgCarbohydrates 37gFiber 3gSugar 19gProtein 34g
Nutrition information calculated by Nutritionix.
Welcome to GypsyPlate! I'm Alpana, former wordwide tour manager and professional caterer, now full time blogger. I love exploring cuisines from around the world, and my recipes have been featured on sites such as MSN, Parade, Brit + Co, CNET and AOL. You can explore my entire collection of sortable recipes in my Recipe Index or learn more about me here.
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Very good. Maybe a little bit salty, but that was probably because I didn’t have enough honey in my pantry. I had like only one tablespoon, at most, probably less.
I’ve made chicken with snow peas many, many times off of other bloggers recipes. This has to be the best one I’ve ever made. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Diana, so glad you liked it!
Hello there! This might be an unusual message, but there is a person publishing on Amazon under the name of “Plush Books” that has recently drawn attention for stealing fanfiction and publishing the content as original novels. Many fanfic authors have done copyright takedowns of these novels; however, Plush Books also has a wide variety of cookbooks available for purchase. Given that the novels on their Amazon page have been stolen, I suspect that the contents of their cookbooks have been stolen as well, except unlike the novels, this information is likely not circulating in food-blog circles.
I’m sending this message to let you know that this recipe and photo appear in the Plush Books cookbook “Food Journey: Asian Dishes,” visible in the sample available for viewing without purchase. If you gave permission to Plush Books to publish this recipe, please disregard this message! If not, you might want to contact Amazon.
Hi Elyse,
Thank you so much for pointing this out to us. No permission has been given to these people, and we will absolutely follow up, as well as try to get the word out in the food blog community.
Thank you again! Alpana